


I Walk the Line

by karrenia_rune



Category: Gargoyles
Genre: 2010, Gen, POV, Yuletide Madness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at Puck and how he reconciles his dual identity as straight-man to David Xanatos alongside his fey identity; and how it all comes together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Walk the Line

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brokengravity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokengravity/gifts).



> Written for brokengravity aka engnrd's request in the Yuletide 2010 challenge

Disclaimer: Gargoyles belongs to Disney and Buena Vista Televison; it is not mine. The story references events from the 2-part episode  
"The Gathering" and the title was inspired by the Johnny Cash song.

"I Walk the Line"

There is a reason for everything if you look hard enough although mine may very well differ in many respects from those of ordinary folk. This is my feeling a sudden spurt of candidness which does not occur with any great frequency so it would do well to take heed.

While the ordinary does have it uses and a certain charm over and above its necessity for everyday life; do not get me wrong, somehow it lacks the spark, the wit, and the sheer verve of the exotic.

Not that long ago as time is reckoned my former Lord and Master inquired what prompted me to make the choice that I have. Namely why I chose a life as a servant to a mortal over the life I could have had as one of the Fay.

I can vividly recall that moment as if it were etched upon my memories by a craftsman creating an image upon glass or stone.

Admittedly, frivolity and sarcasm were not conducive to the moment and not to put too fine a point on it, even I was aware that had gone a hair too far the situation might very well have turned out differently.

There on the rooftop of the Eyrie Building with Lord Oberon bearing down upon us in his towering wrath; I explained that my decision to serve David and Fox Xanatos as my alter-ego Owen Burnett, had been a calculated one. There were many things but dull and mundane did not even enter into the equation.

I also recall mentioning something else when it became known that Oberon intended to begin the Gathering in earnest. We could hardly fight him on his own level, he was simply too powerful. However, a simply observation sprang to mind: energy is energy whether generated by science or sorcery.

I had sought to postpone or delay the Gathering" I had come to enjoy the world of mortals, and would have found it boring indeed to be forced to return to Avalon.

This discnclination to return to the ancient island was not one I alone harbored, for I had an inkling that others of my ilk shared it as well. I did not have to make that inquiry to My Lord. After all, after five centuries to see him go to such lengths this time around, not just for myself but for the Xanatos' child, a mere babe in arms, for the Gathering. Well, it all seemed to fit. The boy's antecedents through his mother were something of a surprise and if allowed to grow into his power but after five hundred years, surely My Lord could be persuaded into delaying the Gathering just a little while longer? Surely?

Needless to say, My Lord did not concur with my arguments and would proceed as he would.

Even in his wrath, which is intimidating as it should be to mortals, and believe me, it's nothing to scoff at. We of the Fay live a very long time many times that of mortal, but I digress.

For you see, that I could tell that this time he heard and took heed.. He paused to consider the implications of the choice I had made. However, what he would do with it, well, I was profoundly mistaken.

Lord Oberon agreed to allow me to remain in the mortal world, serving in the capacity of my present post, as Owen Burnett. However, he utterly barred from every returning to Avalon and decreed that I could only use my powers as Puck when protecting or training the boy.

I was, in a word, stunned. But in the days, months that have passed since that scene on the rooftop I have become more or less reconciled to it.

Again, it is a delicate balancing act, but I have learned to walk the line. Owen and Puck are one the one and the same; and yet they are not, and one would think that it would be difficult if not impossible to reconcile the contradictions implicit in that  
statement. I have it to be not the case. In fact, it even sparked Xanatos' sense for the ironic and the challenge to have the Puck as a resource at his disposal. He's, shall we say, an interesting mortal and one with a great deal of potential.

The Owen Burnett personality is one that I created as an alter-ego and now it is still very much a part of me. I like Owen and I have discovered that I can live with that.


End file.
